Deadly food supplement, five deaths from its consumption

Osaka, Japan.- The Japanese company Kobayashi Pharmaceutical announced that they add five deaths linked to the consumption of a nutritional supplement that would have caused the victims a renal disease after ingestion.

These dietary supplements to reduce cholesterol They contain red yeast rice and were voluntarily withdrawn from the market 10 days ago, along with other products that are being investigated.

Besides, hospitalized to another hundreds of people with kidney problems after ingesting these nutritional supplements, but their condition is unknown.

There is also no public data on other consumers with health problems possibly caused by the supplements, without requiring hospitalization.

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical recalled five products, including 300,000 containers of cholesterol-lowering tablets, of which The firm had sold 1.06 million containers until February since its launch in 2021.

What do dietary supplements contain?

The health problems are believed to have been caused by red yeast rice (‘beni-koji’ in Japanese) that the supplements contain, a variety of this cereal that acquires a reddish color when fermented.

Red yeast rice is a food that used in traditional medicine china and has an effective active component to reduce cholesterol levels (monacolin K), but also may contain a type of toxin causing kidney failure and which, according to Kobayashi, they did not find for now in their recalled products.

The company launched an investigation after receiving notification from a doctor of health problems related to the consumption of its products, including symptoms such as fatigue waves kidney dysfunctions.

Where do they sell the deadly nutritional supplement that caused five deaths?

The Japanese pharmaceutical company said this Friday that it did not know the exact cause of these health problems, supposedly caused by the consumption of some products also sold in China and Taiwan, among other countries.

Those responsible for the Osaka-based firm offered a first public appearance on March 29.

The link between these products and health problems was established by medical professionals, in last January and February, and since then they notified Kobayashi Pharmaceutical those cases in patients who had consumed the supplements.

The company then began to analyze its products under the hypothesis that some harmful substance could have contaminated them during the production process.

Although for the moment they have not been able to identify any foreign agentaccording to its president, Akihiro Kobayashi.

Deadly food supplement transcends Japan’s borders

In addition to the products mentioned, the company distributed red yeast rice to others 52 national and foreign companieswhich has been asked to withdraw their products in case they could also be affected.

It is believed that others 173 companies they would buy products originating from Kobayashi through them.

In addition to Japan, the pharmaceutical company indicated this Friday that the affected products were for sale in Taiwanthrough an intermediary firm, as well as in China through e-commerce platforms.